Welcome to Itzling

Yesterday  was a day of small shifts. The day started with talking about the notion of small shifts and of actions that are radical in a sense but not to the point of total erasing of the other or also of what was there before.

I understood that this form of action very similar if not the same to the idea of the palimpsest, influences  in his manner of working and curating the lecturer of the lunch talk organized yesterday Bassam El Baroni. He,  like so many before him that spoke on the questions linked to the lunch talk series, didn't provide many answers to the questions of the professional, mateur in the art but gave us possible view points and different counterpoints to each argument. Similar like with palimpsest, the art world with this desire to change and to evolve, to become something new or to be proclaimed as dead yet again is existing in this space where everything is accumulating and re evaluation of actions and possible desires needs to take place. We are in the time of the crises and our actions should not be like "writings in the sand "but they should also not be so determined as to become rigid and almost fascists in its nature.

From the very theory based lunch talk I found myself later on in the day on the streets of Salzburg. It was second of the Walk and Talk tours organized during the Summer Academy. Unlike the previous years where the desire was to introduce the students with the cultural institutions in Salzburg, these tours introduce us to the side of the city and the parts of the city that may not be so attractive to the tourists.

All of us present yesterday in the part of Salzburg called Itzling enjoyed the stories and experiences that, freelance actor and theatre- maker Dorit Ehlers had while organizing three different projects in this area in the period of two years.

Dorit Ehlers for many years was also living in this part of Salzburg that is located close to the train station. Riding her bicycle through the main street, Elisabeth Street, she noticed how many of the shops on that street would change, new would be popping up and soon enough close. Most of the shops stayed empty and this emptiness existed not only in the buildings but also in the community as well as people were losing their meeting spots and because of this just lost touch with one another.

The projects that she organized used the spaces of the empty stores. Different shop windows had different projections of different movies show casing different stories that Dorit Ethler collected from the oldest generation of the people living in Itzling. In one store that they ended up using for the three different projects,  the space was changed like a theater stage would change depending on the play performed. The first time it was a space to warm up in winter, coming home from the train station with performances around the idea of what a miracle is. The other time it was a post office,Postamt Mitzl, a space where you would receive help from people " better " with words then yourself to help you write a letter that you find difficult to write and the third time it was a space of a hotel, Grand Hotel and its lobby where you can come in and read different names of the guest, different name of the different story that you would be told if you ask " Who is this guest?".

The projects to the organizers were something between art and life. They used theater elements like dressing up and organizing performances in the space but in the end the most important thing was to be honest. Even if in the costume of a hotel receptionist not to be in that role but to be  sincere in the manner you approach the community of Itzling. The space of the shop was more importantly a meeting spot for the community members.

The end of yesterday was a great shift from the scenes that I would normally see during my days in Salzburg. It felt almost like a break from the "serious "questions asked during the lunch talks and it also gave me  a new understanding and more interest to the city itself. One of students during the walk said to me that he can't find anything wrong to say about this walk  and he normally always tries to in any situation. This project that the Summer Academy is organizing was really inspiring to me and if you are ever  given a chance make sure that you go on one of these walks.